Who cares about the exact number of zeros?!? How on earth does someone manage to even 'find' 1million people, let alone find 1million who have 1thousand pounds of spare cash lying around in their bank account, contact all 1million, and then manage to convice them to hand over 1thousand pounds cash! This guy must have been an incredibly skillful genius.
The sad thing is if you tell that person give me the 8K and I will give you a 7-10% annual return, they will not do it because it is too risky and not enough return. Now tell them 125% and all bets are off.
They do have a clean getaway. They use the court system. It exists to protect the rights of the guilty. I thought long and hard about why it is called a ponzi scheme. I realized that this means nobody has to explain where the money went - its gone always! The media has trained people not to ask the obvious question. One scheme cost 400 million dollars based on 3 percent guaranteed interest monthly, US and Canadian investors over a period of a decade or so. They are going to trial. I wonder why did they do it while I watch the preliminaries. Then I realize, one day this sham will win, they will serve their jail time, and they will be free men. There is an explanation for where the money is thanks to the media. If the scheme cost them 25% to run, then somewhere out there in accounts or assets owned by the ponzi salesman, lies 300 million quietly gaining interest (tax-free possibly) as the cheated slowly lose interest. If I wasn't honest and a big younger, I could see why they would do it!
By clean getaway I meant never spending time in jail, and sipping margareta on a tropical island. But I do agree, that they don't get punished enough. The UK guys got 13 and 14 years, that is 7 years with good behaviour. If they actually have a little brain (not all of them were thinking of rainy days) and had some funds put in untouchable assets/locations, then it wasn't a bad deal... But it is a mistake to think that they all have all the missing money. The top investors usually get some of the profits and these guys like to live large, and those assets are usually taken away when they go down...
You are right, so maybe they only have 10% of the money, it's still a good deal for some of these guys. Bankrupcy to millionaire in a few easy steps. The fellow on trial had a huge place in Nicaragua so he got some margareta time in as well. The key is the ready explanation "Ponzi scheme". Everybody believes the money is gone, but rarely are these schemes pure ponzi schemes. Search out wikapedia and gary sorenson for more if you are interested. Remember that in the mafia, reportedly people went to jail for crimes to serve time and their family was looked after. This scheme pays a whole lot more and you have the government protecting you and paying your costs. It's a much better deal for some people.